NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Forget lazy days rocking on a creaky porch swing, these days working is the new retirement.

Last year’s severe market losses left many once-healthy retirement accounts depleted, forcing many seniors to put their retirement plans on hold and head back to work.

There were 450,000 people age 65 and over actively looking for work in July, a whopping 60% increase from a year ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Boyd Barger was one of them –until just recently when he found a job. After a long career in the Air Force, Barger climbed the corporate ladder to senior management at the Dept. of Labor’s Job Corps program. He retired three years ago.

Barger opened a small arts and antiques business out of his home to supplement his retirement plans.

“The first year was OK,” he said, “but then the economy turned.”

Like many small businesses, sales grew sluggish as the recession took hold. That’s when, in April, Barger, 65, decided he needed to go back to work.

But getting back in the game wasn’t easy. “I found that when I went back and read my old résumés they were not really focused on today’s employers’ needs,” he said.

So Barger got up to speed on the current job market by networking with old friends and Air Force buddies, researching tips on how to update his résumé, watching webinars and online videos related to his job search and learning today’s computer requirements.

Barger got a lead on an opening in his area when a former colleague told him about a position at Serco North America as an Army OneSource community support coordinator, providing support and access to services, such as day care and health care, for soldiers and their families.

Barger applied online and heard back within a week. After a series of interviews he was hired and started in June.

According to Barger’s supervisor, Johannes Graefe, age was never an issue.

“What stood out to me was what Boyd did in the Air Force, working with individuals and spouses and how well spoken he is,” he said.

Graefe said he interviewed several other candidates for the position, but “you have to have it in your heart and Boyd has that.”

Getting back in the game
Workers forced to delay retirement and reenter the workforce will find that today’s job market bears little resemblance to those found 40, 30, 20 and even 10 years ago, according to Bob Skladany, chief career coach at RetirementJobs.com.

“Mailed, hard copy résumés and walk-in applications have given way to Internet-based job listings and interactive, online applications. Yesterday’s job searching techniques and skills are generally not effective today and new skills are required, particularly for workers in their 60s, 70s and 80s,” Skladany said.

Skladany recommends that job seekers first update and rejuvenate their résumé, get up to speed on basic computer skills, such as word processing and e-mail, join social networks and be easily accessible by cell phone and e-mail.

For mature workers with previous military experience, like Barger, there are also many advantages that often go unnoted, according to John O’Connor, president and CEO of Career Pro Inc. in Raleigh, N.C., which specializes in helping military personnel transition into the workforce.

In addition to an extremely vast and valuable network, there are also often many technological, logistical and coordination skills obtained in the military that can translate to today’s job market, he said.

“There’s so much coordination that needs to be done, working with inside and outside vendors. That could be the same thing that a manufacturer or distributor does.”

“It may be called something different,” O’Connor said, but that’s just “the semantics of it.”

Excerpt from:
Hired! Coming out of retirement at 65

Robert Kiyosaki

I am often asked, “What advice do you have for the average investor?” My reply is, “Don’t be average.”

Most of us know of the 80/20 rule. That rule is a good rule for averages. And in the world of money, the rule is 90/10. This means 90 percent of the people make 10 percent of the money and 10 percent of the people make 90 percent of the money.

This 90/10 rule holds true in almost anything financial. Take the game of golf, for example. Ten percent of the professional golfers make 90 percent of the money.

Taking the ratio to the next level, the top 10 percent of professional golfers make 90 percent of the money. Just look at Tiger Woods. When you compare his winnings plus endorsements, he is in a league unto himself.

Last year, my wife Kim was invited to play in a pro-am as part of a professional Tour event in New York. (No, they did not invite me…) Kim is pretty good and was the only woman in a field of around 300 golfers. I was a proud husband as she confidently walked alone to the women’s tee. Without hesitation, she placed her ball on the tee, took a clean back swing, and swung her club.

She out-drove two of the men in her five-some. Bruce Vaughn, the professional golfer in the group, rushed up to congratulate her. The men amateurs were also complimentary. I could tell they were relived to have a much better than average “woman golfer” in their group. Kim hits her drives longer than most men, myself included.

Tough Way to Earn a Living

The tournament was the first time I got to see the real life of a professional golfer. It is a tough life. It is not the glamour I thought it was. If a professional did not make the cut, they simply moved on to the next tournament in some faraway city…and teed up again. They do not stay for the tournament. They pay for their own transportation, lodging, food, and fees. They are on the road, away from their families for months at a time. Even those who make the cut and play on the weekend have no guarantee of enough earnings to offset expenses. It’s a tough way to earn a living.

Like professional golfers, who live and die by the ‘money list,’ money is how I keep score. It’s my score card, my report card as an investor. It’s how I tell how well — or how poorly — I’m doing. My rich dad said, ‘Making money is my game.’ It’s my game, too. And that’s why I have so much respect for professional golfers… their livelihood depends upon how well they play the game — as professionals.

In the world of golf there are average and professional golfers. The same is true with investors. The problem with being an average golfer or investor is that average people rarely make any money. Many average investors are in financial trouble today because they are simply that: average. They never turned pro.

When the financial crisis began in 2007, the professional investors were already out (or getting out) of the market. The average investors did as they were told, which is to invest for the long-term, hanging on tight as the Dow plunged from 14,000 to below 7,000, a 50 percent loss in value. Many real estate flippers and homeowners enjoyed the same wild ride.

Tragedy of the Average Investor

The tragedy is that many amateur investors are still clinging to their losses. They hope the market will bounce back. Amateurs are still following the advice of “invest for the long term in a well-diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.” Or they continue to believe “your home is your biggest investment.” That is subprime advice for subprime investors.

It seems to me that more people keep track of their golf scores than keep track of their money… their ‘financial’ scores. That’s why they’re amateurs… in the money game.

Even after the crash, the same subprime financial advice continues to be dished out in magazines, newspapers, and on television. Subprime advice continues to flow from real estate and stock market professionals who are not professional investors. They are professional sales people. They live on commissions — not ROI, the returns on their investments. If they do not sell, they do not eat.

If you’re going to turn pro, you will need to upgrade your financial advice. Why continue to invest for the long term while the market is crashing? Why continue to diversify when diversification did not protect investors from the crash?

In 1974, as I was leaving the Marine Corps, I decided I wanted to become an entrepreneur and investor. In other words, I did not want a job with a 401(k). That meant I had to become street smart, rather than school smart. It meant I needed a different set of life skills and better financial mentors if I were to survive on the street.
Just like the life of the pro golfers, there were long stretches of losses, no wins, no money or security.

In early 1985, things got so bad that Kim and I were temporarily homeless. I still remember leaving her in San Diego with only $2 for the week, while I traveled to Australia to put a deal together. Somehow we survived the year. In December of 1985 we finally made $1,500 after a year’s worth of losses. That year was a great qualifying school. Today, even in this tough economy, our investments continue to grow. This crisis is a good time for professionals and a bad time for amateurs.

Not Good Enough

Years ago, I asked my rich dad, “What is the difference between a professional and an amateur?” His reply was, “Professionals know their best is not good enough. They always want to do better.” He paused before continuing and said, “When someone says, ‘I’ll do my best’ or ‘I’ll give it my best shot’ or ‘I’ll try,’ they’ve already lost. Those are not words of a winner.”

In the world of ‘the best,’ your best is never good enough. If you’re going to be a winner in life, you have to constantly go beyond your best. Most people are happy being average. Most are happy being faceless in a sea of faces. That’s why 10 percent always win 90 percent of the rewards. I get up every day, grateful for what I have accomplished, yet looking forward to doing better. I want do better than my (previous) best everyday. It’s not about the money anymore. I have enough money. I just love the game of making money.

Today I give most of my money away…but I will not give up the game of money. I play the game because the game is always better than me…and my best will never be good enough. I continue to work hard to become better at a game I love.

I once read a book on golf that said, “People say amateurs play for the love of the game and professionals play for money. That is not true. Amateurs are amateurs because they do not love the game enough. When it is cold and rainy, a professional golfer will play. The amateur will not. When they are sick, the professional will play. The amateur stays in bed. When they are losing, the professional will practice harder and enter more tournaments. The amateur will quit and take up tennis.”

It matters little if the game is golf, tennis, or money. Ten percent of the people will always make 90 percent of the money. When the markets began crashing in 2007, the money did not disappear. Ninety percent of the money went to 10 percent of the investors.

A financial crisis is a great time for professional investors and a horrible time for average ones. If you’re going to invest, don’t be average. It’s time to turn pro… or take up tennis.

Life is like a game of chances. You can win or you can lose. Everyday, we are faced with challenges, which can either lead us to become a winner or a loser. Learning financial literacy is essential to increase your chances of winning the game of life. Consequently, it is best to play the cash flow game to gauge how well did you grasp the concepts in winning the game of money.

Recently, I watched another video again of Robert Kiyosaki as now he talks about the so-called Game of Money where he described the four quarters of financial life dividing it into 10-year horizons and asked, “at which age will you win the game of money?”

Let’s view the four quarters of life with some inputs so that we know how will we win the game of money and retire as young as we can be.

1st Quarter (25-35 years old) – By this age, you’re probably done with your college education. Most of us start our careers when we land on our first quarter of life. We want a high-paying job, buy a car, have our credit cards and enjoy life. While many of us just want to enjoy life after graduation, it is advisable for us to:

Savings should be our top priority. When you receive your paycheck, take out a certain amount and deposit it in a savings account. Once you accumulated enough savings, transfer the bulk of it into a higher yielding deposit account. Compound interest will help it to earn more interest.

Get Insurance. Get insurance especially if you now have family and kids to support with at this age. The higher and the healthier you are, the cheaper insurance costs will be.

Learn Investment Options. Think of investment options where you can invest your extra cash. You can invest it in stocks, mutual funds, real estate, bonds, etc. Start to educate yourself financially.

2nd Quarter (35-45 years old) – By this age, you are probably at the top of your career and definitely earning much more. But this quarter may also be the time when you’re starting to have your own family so that also means higher expenses. It is advisable to:

Plan for children’s future. You are now working not just for yourself but also for your children. Plan for your children’s future by getting an educational plan or open a time deposit that’s under your children’s name and deposit an amount into it regularly.

Make sure you have enough for your emergency fund. Emergency fund is amount totally dedicated to emergency expenses such as health problems, etc. A good amount would be equal to six months up to 1 year of your monthly income. Place it in an easy accessible type of investment so that when your need arises, you can easily withdraw it.

Have a business. By this age, you could have probably known a lot of networks from friends, colleagues, acquaintances, etc. And since you’re earning much higher, then you could start your own business. Gauge yourself on what business you should start. Examine your passions and skills in choosing the right business for you.

Half Time – Kiyosaki referred after the 2nd Quarter as half time because you are in the middle before retirement. It’s also called as “mid-life crisis”. It is now time to examine yourself. You are not getting any younger anymore. Have you had enough savings to cover for your future? What did you accomplished in your life?

3rd Quarter (45-55 years old) – By this age, you are probably on top of you career, possibly a manager or vice president of the company. You could be earning more and your children may be in their college years or are already working. Retirement is just around the corner waiting for you. In this quarter of life, it is advisable to:

Allocate much of your income to investment capital. Review your investment portfolio and ask yourself if you need to transfer your funds into a higher earning investment scheme. Just be sure to have a through due diligence before you transfer your funds.

4th Quarter (55-65 years old) – By this age, your children may well be on their own now with their respective families already. You are now at the age where you can retire. You may choose to still be employed but it should not be on stressful work as you are now prone to health problems brought about by old age, which means higher health care expenses. In this age, it is advisable to:

Protect your capital. Try to preserve your capital so that you can live with on its interest. And make sure to make your last will in order.

Over Time – Kiyosaki referred after the 4th quarter as over time. If you haven’t had any accomplished things when it comes to your financial future, then that would be a great problem because sooner or later you would be “out of time” and the game of money will be “game over”.

We don’t want to retire old. As much as we could, we want to retire young so that we can still enjoy the things that we want. How could we enjoy it if we are already old with a lot of health problems associated with old age?

Personally, just like what Kiyosaki did retiring at the age of 47, I also want to win the game of money and retire on the second quarter of life. I want to enjoy life as early as I could without having to worry on going or having to work. And that is the very essence of financial freedom.

View original post here:
Game of Money – Four Quarters of Life

On February 9, 2009, Experian stopped selling consumers their own score. They will of course continue selling them to creditors. Apparently, we as consumers no longer have access to FICO scores at all from them. The sell Vantage and Plus scores, which aren’t the same as FICO scores.

FICO score are the ones that matter; they are what lenders use. It’s not clear what, other than score, you’ll have access to when you apply for a loan.

There is a serious drawback for consumers here: you have to have a pull on your credit now to get a real score and you still may not have access to the information in your file. That makes it very difficult if not impossible to correct errors. It also makes it nearly impossible to enforce your rights under the fair credit laws and I suspect that that is the reason why Experian went this route.

We have the right to see the reports on which the scores are based but currently not the scores. I think we should. One of the things I find to be sleazy about this industry is that they don’t have to show you what they share with lenders.

Read the rest here:
Experian stops selling FICO scores to consumers